47th Congressional District: Gary DeLong counts on Long Beach council experience in race

When Gary DeLong first ran for the Long Beach City Council, he saw a city headed in the wrong direction and didn't find much to like about the way money was being spent.

Today, DeLong is midway through his second term and is running for the 47th Congressional District, which spans Long Beach to western Orange County, while taking on a local political giant, state Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach.

DeLong, 52, sees similarities between the Long Beach of 2006 and the country today.

"There are a few more zeroes," he joked at a recent interview at his telecommunications consulting firm, The RTP Group.

As chairman of the council's Budget Oversight Committee, DeLong has presided over some of the most difficult budgets in the city's history, with revenues consistently flagging behind costs. Officials have balanced deficits of $21.2 million, $20.3 million and $17.2 million in the past three fiscal years.

Though there has been turmoil and heartache - about 500 positions have been cut during the period, services have been reduced, and public safety, the city's largest expense, has borne the brunt - DeLong argues that Long Beach has taken steps toward a better financial future and has enacted large-scale pension reforms.

"We're a much more fiscally solvent city today, with much better financial policies," DeLong said.

Born in Los Angeles, DeLong grew up in Westchester, the son of an AT&T salesman and a homemaker. He earned his bachelor's degree in business at Cal State University Dominguez Hills and received an MBA at the University of Southern California.

He moved to Long Beach in 1986 and joined The RTP Group two years later, as a vice president, before buying the company later.

It now employs three, including DeLong. He also lists annual rental income of at least $660,006 on 12 properties, according to his statement of economic interests with the Fair Political Practices Commission.

A Park Estates resident, DeLong is married and has three daughters.

In this campaign, DeLong has not been a boilerplate Republican, something that has frustrated his opponent's campaign, which attempts to depict DeLong as merely another vote for the Tea Party on Capitol Hill.

DeLong supports gay marriage, is pro-choice and eschews the term "Obamacare," instead using the legislation's name, the Affordable Care Act.

He doesn't support repealing the law.

"I like to see things happen. I'm not going to invest my time and energy into something that's unlikely to happen," said DeLong, who favors tort reform as one way to cut costs in the legislation.

On the economy, DeLong is a more traditional fiscal conservative, speaking of easing regulations and thinking of businesses when considering the merit of proposed legislation.

He advocates closing tax loopholes and does not run from the possibility of eventually raising taxes, though only if all other approaches to closing the national deficit have been exhausted.

"But clearly we're not there yet," DeLong said. "We can make government more cost effective."

As for any politician, reviews of DeLong's tenure in his district are mixed.

Some in the community knocked him for supporting a 2008 infrastructure parcel tax measure. DeLong said he was merely giving voters a choice on the tax, which failed.

He was also taken to task for voting in the council majority to back a land swap at the Los Cerritos Wetlands. Environmentalists claimed the exchange, which flipped 11 acres of city land for 33.7 acres of the wetlands habitat, was not a fair trade for the city.

A vote DeLong cast in favor of Second+PCH, a $320 million retail, condominium and boutique hotel complex proposed at Second Street and Pacific Coast Highway was criticized in part because of a zoning exception that would have been granted to accommodate a 12-story residential tower.

"The problem is, once you give a variance to the code, it sets a legal precedent," said Mike Ruehle, a former 25-year Belmont Shore resident and past president of that neighborhood's residents association.

"Do it the right way, change the code," he continued. "I don't really care if they put 50 stories there. Just do what the code said."

DeLong acknowledged he could have done more to secure some sort of development at the intersection, possibly one with a smaller footprint that would have been acceptable to his colleagues and local stakeholders.

"I could have pushed harder to find a compromise and consensus," DeLong said.

Small as it may seem in the scope of a congressional race, some residents gave DeLong high marks for listening to them on matters such as infrastructure improvements and other neighborhood problems. Such "bread and butter" issues are often among the most important - and visible - to constituents.

"It doesn't have to be a big issue where he gets his name out there," said friend Jane Netherton, CEO of International City Bank.

"Gary takes the things that are meaningful, and he does it."

One area where DeLong draws glowing support is business. Among his many backers are the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Josh Owens, owner of Ability Tri-Modal Transportation, recalled meeting DeLong several years ago when the councilman was touring the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles for a clean trucks program.

Owens was concerned about a mandate in the program that would force companies to employ truck drivers rather than use the widespread practice of hiring independent contractors.

"An hour or hour-and-a-half later we had a meeting with port officials," Owens said. The provision was later dropped.

With 11 percent more registered Democrats than Republicans in the 47th District, DeLong is cognizant that his battle is uphill against Lowenthal.

He said he is confident that he can secure the Orange County vote and make enough inroads in Los Angeles County to win.

DeLong has also raised more funds than Lowenthal. As of Sept. 30, Delong had collected $1.2 million during the election cycle to $854,281 for Lowenthal, according to the Federal Election Commission.

The councilman said he is fighting for a level playing field across the country, where everybody has the opportunity to do better tomorrow than they have done today.

"Somehow, we've lost our way. We're going to move money from this group from that group," DeLong said.

"We've gotten into picking winners and losers, and I don't like any of those things."